U.K. Gov Outlines Film & TV Production Restart Scheme

The U.K. government has published the eligibility criteria and guidelines for its £500 million ($646 million) Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, meant to help productions that have been halted or delayed by an inability to get insurance for COVID-19-related risks.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and HM Treasury have published draft scheme rules and supplementary explanatory notes for the government-backed scheme.

The scheme will be available to any producer (or co-producer) of an eligible production that is either an incorporated entity residing solely in the U.K. or an EEA State for tax purposes; or a partnership, provided that all of the profits of the business carried on by the partnership are subject to tax in the U.K. or one or more EEA States.

An eligible participant may apply to register and make a request under the scheme in respect of any pre-existing production or new production that is produced solely by that eligible participant or by that eligible participant and one or more co-producers; will incur at least 50 percent of the production budget on U.K. expenditure; meets the “cultural test”; meets the commercial viability criteria; and is not an excluded production.

What’s not included in the scheme are productions involving the reporting or discussion of news or current affairs, which are broadcast live; productions that provide coverage of live events (including sport) or theatrical, musical or artistic performances given otherwise than for the purpose of being filmed (or that typically would be except for social distancing measures); productions that are filmed (whether in whole or in part) in front of a paying live audience; productions that are advertisements or other promotional programs; productions that are produced for training purposes that will not be publicly broadcast; and productions that are pornographic in nature.

Each eligible participant must pay a fee to DCMS, an amount in pounds sterling equal to 1 percent of the production budget of the relevant eligible production that is to be registered; or where the eligible production will be produced by two or more co-producers, the aggregate value of the financial interests of each co-producer who is an eligible participant and wants to utilize the scheme.

Future claims made under the scheme can be backdated to July 28.

The registration deadline for this scheme is December 31, and claims will be able to be submitted up to November 30, 2021, for losses incurred up until June 30, 2021.